Scientists create lab model of human pancreatic cancer

Could yield advances in early diagnosis, treatment of lethal disease

December 9, 2003

Researchers Nabel Bardeesy and Ronald DePinho were part of the team that developed the cancer model.

Currently, nearly all the 30,000 cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed annually are fatal within a matter of months because they are too advanced to remove surgically by the time they cause symptoms. The standard treatments of chemotherapy and radiation are largely ineffective. Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute recently created bioengineered mice that develop aggressive, fatal pancreatic cancer through the same genetic mishaps that cause the disease in humans. Because the mouse-model cancers start and progress along a path that closely resembles the disease’s course in humans, the scientists believe it will be particularly useful in searching for telltale substances, or biomarkers, in the animals. These biomarkers could lead to a blood or urine screening test to catch the disease in an early and potentially curable stage in the mice and, ultimately, in humans. The report, whose lead authors are Andrew J. Aguirre and Nabeel M. Bardeesy, appeared in the Dec. 15, 2003 print issue of Genes and Development. The research was supported by the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Research.

Targeting mechanisms in the central nervous system might yield the beneficial effects of low-calorie diets on healthy aging without the need to alter food intake, suggests new research from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Jose Gomez-Ibanez, a transportation and infrastructure policy expert at Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, talks about the political and financial hurdles to smoothly running public transit systems.

Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital find that participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress.